Effective, efficient ventricular pumping action depends on proper cardiac function. Proper cardiac function, in turn, relies on the synchronized contractions of the heart at regular intervals. When normal cardiac rhythm is initiated at the sinoatrial node, the heart is said to be in sinus rhythm. However, when the heart experiences irregularities in its coordinated contraction, due to electrophysiologic disturbances caused by a disease process or from an electrical disturbance, the heart is denoted to be arrhythmic. The resulting cardiac arrhythmia impairs cardiac efficiency and can be a potential life threatening event.
Cardiac arrhythmias occurring in the atrial region of the heart are called supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVTs). Cardiac arrhythmias occurring in the ventricular region of the heart are called ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTs). SVTs and VTs are morphologically and physiologically distinct events. VTs take many forms, including ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. Ventricular fibrillation is a condition denoted by extremely rapid, nonsynchronous contractions of the ventricles. This condition is fatal unless the heart is returned to sinus rhythm within a few minutes. Ventricular tachycardia are conditions denoted by a rapid heart beat, 150 to 250 beats per minute, that has its origin in some abnormal location within the ventricular myocardium. The abnormal location is typically results from damage to the ventricular myocardium from a myocardial infarction. Ventricular tachycardia can quickly degenerate into ventricular fibrillation.
SVTs also take many forms, including atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. Both conditions are characterized by rapid uncoordinated contractions of the atria. Besides being hemodynamically inefficient, the rapid contractions of the atria can also adversely effect the ventricular rate. This occurs when the aberrant contractile impulse in the atria are transmitted to the ventricles. It is then possible for the aberrant atrial signals to induce VTs, such as a ventricular tachycardia.
Implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs) have been established as an effective treatment for patients with serious ventricular tachyarrhythmias. The first generation of ICDs relied exclusively on ventricular rate sensing for tachyarrhythmia detection. Specificity to SVT was, however, often compromised, especially when the ventricular response to SVT surpassed the patient's heart rate during VT. The frequency of inappropriate shocks with early generations of signal chamber ICDs ranged from 10-41% of the shocks. Detection enhancements, such as Sudden Onset and Stability of the cardiac rhythms, improved specificity in more modem ICDs. The introduction of dual chamber defibrillators further improved upon the specificity to SVT without compromising sensitivity to VT. Unfortunately, some patients still receive inappropriate therapies for SVT, especially when atria-to-ventricular conduction is 1:1.
Morphology-based algorithms have been proposed as a way of distinguishing VT from SVT. Many of these algorithms are template matching algorithms which determine the type of tachycardia by comparing features of the electrogram in question with an efficient representation of the patient's normal sinus rhythm (NSR) electrogram. The basis of appropriate discrimination using template-matching algorithms are based on the assumption that the morphology of ventricular depolarization during VT will be dissimilar to those during NSR. These algorithms classify cardiac complexes based on their morphological similarity to the patient's NSR complexes using only one intracardiac electrogram channel. In the process of comparing any two complexes, the algorithm locates a fuducial point (e.g., the peak of the complex) to align the two complexes with respect to each other. This alignment has the side effect of positioning complexes such that they appear to be more similar then they actually are. As a result, differentiating the two complexes becomes more difficult.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for providing a reliable system of discriminating SVT induced ventricular tachycardia from malignant ventricular tachycardia which can provide effective and reliable therapy to patients experiencing malignant ventricular tachycardia.